Social death, sometimes referred to as social suicide, is the condition of people not accepted as fully human by wider society. It refers to when someone is treated as if they are dead or non-existent.[1] It is used by sociologists such as Orlando Patterson and Zygmunt Bauman, and historians of slavery and the Holocaust to describe the part played by governmental and social segregation in that process.[2][3] Social death is defined by "three aspects: a loss of social identity, a loss of social connectedness and losses associated with disintegration of the body."[4]
^Family and Psycho-Social Dimensions of Death and Dying in African Americans, Key Topics on End-of-Life Care for African Americans, Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life and the Initiative to Improve Palliative Care for African Americans
^John Edwin Mason, Social Death and Resurrection: Slavery and Emancipation in South Africa, ISBN0-8139-2178-3
^Jaap W. Ouwerkerk, et al., Avoiding the Social Death Penalty: Threat of Ostracism and Cooperation in Social Dilemmas, The 7th Annual Sydney Symposium of Social Psychology: The Social Outcast: Ostracism, Social Exclusion, Rejection, & Bullying, Mar. 16-18, 2004 (Alternate link)
^Matelita Ragogo, Social Death Part of AIDS Tragedy, Says HIV-Positive Advocate, Agence France Presse, Sept. 9, 2002